I've always assumed that every email in the US is already monitored. And not just since 9/11. I assumed it from the time I started using email in the 1980s. Maybe I was overly imaginative, but I suspect the only thing that's changing is that they're doing it openly.
Openness is a step forward - the real shame is in doing it covertly, while saying otherwise. Email records should be assumed in this day and age. The electronic trail that everyone leaves through credit cards, atms, security cameras in intersections (license plates). I didn't assume that it was as early as pre-9/11, but electronic data is so prevalent now that it's hard not to track people. Do you really care about the CIA/FBI having records though?
However once the general populace is accepting that the government records all of their emails, the next step is to vilify encryption and move towards banning that.
The counter of course is to put email encryption in the hands of the general populace so they feel empowered against such snooping in the first place (hello major webmail providers. time for opportunistic encryption yet?)
I only care about them misusing the data they have if there isn't sufficient oversight. I don't mind them having my data, but I'm bothered when I find out that police officers are misusing security cameras to spy on naked women for example (also in the UK IIRC).
